


Reichenbach Phil

by SpacedOut



Category: Phan, Phandom, dan and phil, phanfiction - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Feels, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Near Death Experience, heights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2017-11-25 04:38:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/635198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpacedOut/pseuds/SpacedOut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a normal day in the Life of Dan and Phil, until Phil decides to walk onto the balcony in the middle of a storm.</p><p>"One minute, Dan saw his best friend standing outside on their balcony. The next minute, Phil and the blacony's railing were gone."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reichenbach Phil

**Author's Note:**

> If you're a Sherlock fan, you will understand the title after reading this. If you're not a Sherlock fan, I suggest you watch Sherlock because it's fantabulous. ;)
> 
> This fic actually turned out to have a bigger "moral to the story" than I had previously planned. Pretty much, live as if you'll die tomorrow. You never know when you'll run out of second chances.
> 
> Note: This is a fictional tale. I don't know if Dan and Phil are in an actual relationship or not and I'm pretty confident this fic did not really happen. 
> 
> WARNINGS: Spiders? Mention of vomiting, and near death experiences. Oh, and some bad language.
> 
> ENJOY :)

~***~

 

Dan sat on his computer desk and looked out the window. It was incredibly windy and rainy outside. Typical England weather. The sky was growing dark even though it was early afternoon. Dan remembered checking the weather at 4am that morning and reading that there was supposed to be a huge storm coming in from the west. _Great,_ Dan grumbled, _Can’t God give the rain to some other country? Give the rain to Iraq or Arizona or something, anywhere but the one country where it precipitates the most, damnit…_

“Dan! Oh my glob! Dan! Get over here right now!” Phil screamed from the other room.

 _Did Phil just say, “Oh my glob?”_ Dan thought as he hopped off his desk and walked out into the hallway. Phil needs to stop watching Adventure Time. He had watched every episode at least twice and even took the initiative to buy a Lemon Grab IPhone Case online. Dan face palmed for about a half hour when he saw it come through the mail last week. 

“Dan! Hurry!” 

Dan broke into a jog. It sounded like Phil was in genuine pain and the thought of that made Dan’s heart sink suddenly and a bit unexpectedly. As he got closer he realized Phil was in the bathroom. _What could have happened? He slipped? He broke something?_ There were hundreds of scenarios passing through Dan’s mind with each of them growing worse and worse all the way to horrible images of Phil getting impaled by the mirror. Oh my glob.

Dan made it into the bathroom just in time to see Phil taking a picture of the floor. _What the?_

Phil was pointing toward the ground. “Dan, Look at it! It’s huge!” 

Dan followed Phil’s finger pointing to a black lump on the tiled floor. It was a spider. A fucking gigantic spider. No, that was not just a spider. It was the mother of all horrendous evil in the world.

“HOLY SHIT PHIL! What are you doing? Don’t just stand there and take pictures of it! Kill It! It’s evil!” Dan yelled. Dan’s voice scared it and the beast started to move toward him. Dan screamed like the little girl he was (he was not ashamed to admit that he screamed like a girl either… that thing was fricken huge!) and scrambled towards Phil and grabbed onto Phil’s shoulders as he jumped onto the toilet bowl with the lid up and his feet straddling the seat. 

Phil rolled his eyes, “Dan, it is just a spider. It’s kind of cute, actually. Look, it has a fuzzy back!”

Dan shuddered at the word “fuzzy” being used to describe the spider as he squeezed Phil’s shoulders to keep his balance. He bent his head down sideways next to Phil’s face and asked, “Why did you call me in here exactly?” 

Phil turned his head toward Dan and gave him his disappointed pouty face that Dan secretly loved. Phil looked right through him with his blue eyes shining wildly from the bathroom’s lighting. Dan just about lost his composure. How did he get so lucky to have such an attractive best friend?  


(((((((Dan couldn’t ever find it in himself to call Phil hot. It wasn’t that Dan didn’t find him hot because he did… Lord knows it, Lady Gaga knows it, everyone except for Phil knows it. It was just that the term “hot” didn’t suit Phil properly. Dan would describe him as cute, adorable, handsome, beautiful, MINE, and when Phil starts acting frisky (like the time they sang Toxic to the camera), Dan would even describe him as sexy. 

Oh. So. Sexy.))))))

“I thought you would find the spider to be interesting. Apparently I found your new biggest fear instead. Looks like I know what I’m sneaking into your pillow case for April Fool’s Day this year!” Phil laughed.

Dan scowled, “Ha ha very funny, now let’s get the broom and get this execution over with. The Walking Dead is going to come on soon!”

Now it was Phil’s turn to scowl, “No. no. no. no. no. We are not killing a harmless spider! Daniel Howell, I order you to go to the kitchen, grab a can with a lid, and bring it to me. I’m going to let the spider free into the outside world so he can tell his friends that I saved his life. Maybe his friends will watch my videos and subscribe to me too?”

Dan shook his head and laughed. “Phil, did you just *order* me? Are you a king now? And I’m just going to pretend that I didn’t just hear you say that you want a spider to advertise your Youtube videos to its friends.”

“Well you said that the spider was getting executed! Don’t kings execute people?”

Dan jumped down from the toilet and shimmied around the perimeter of the bathroom in order to avoid the spider. “Whatever you say Phil… I’ll just go grab a can then, master.”

Phil smiled at Dan as he left the bathroom. Dan smirked the whole entire way to the kitchen. He just called Phil “master”. Kinky.

“Stop it, Dan. He’s your friend. Just your friend,” Dan said to himself over and over again. Sometimes he needed to remind himself of that.

He found an empty Pringles can on the counter and decided it was perfect for spider transportation. On his way back to the bathroom he heard a loud bang from outside on the balcony. He looked over at the slide door and saw that the lawn chair and table had flipped over outside. The view behind it was awful. Angry black clouds were rolling in and rain had just started to fall. The wind was almost hurricane worthy. 

Dan always felt a bit uncomfortable in their flat during thunderstorms. He still wasn’t used to living 26 stories above the Earth. Sometimes he could feel the wind shake the building and the lightning tended to be much more visible in the sky from their aerial view of London. 

Once Dan approached the bathroom he tossed the can over to Phil. 

“Okay. Dan, you hold the lid and I’ll trap the spider,” Phil said as he bent down and quickly plopped the Pringles can over the spider.  
Dan yelped.

Phil looked up at Dan in confusion.

“What?” Dan asked, looking down at Phil, “I don’t like spiders okay?!?”

Phil shook his head and laughed, “Sometimes I wonder why I Love You.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, his eyes went wide and his face distorted in genuine fear.

 _Did Phil just say that he loved me?_ Dan’s heart dropped to the floor.

Dan saw himself pale faced and tense through the mirror’s reflection. **Phil. Loves. Me. What.**

He was going to say something, he just wasn’t quite sure what though. Probably something along the lines of, “I love you too Phil.” Then they could talk about everything he had been afraid to say these past few years. Maybe they could even just laugh the whole thing off?

It was too late. Phil’s face went blank as he snatched the lid from Dan and picked the can up. He screwed the lid on and pushed past Dan to get out of the bathroom as fast as possible.

Dan’s lungs were out of air. His mind tried to catch up with his body as he followed Phil into the living room. 

“Phil wait! Talk to me.”

Phil walked over to the sliding glass door that led to the balcony. He turned to look at Dan.

“It’s nothing, Dan. Leave it alone. I’m going to let the spider outside and we’ll just forget the past 20 minutes ever happened okay? It’s obvious you're not interested in me and it’s impossible for us to be together anyway. I’m so stupid. I’m sorry,” Phil said.

He opened the sliding door and stormed out onto the balcony. 

Dan saw the sky overhead. He saw lightning in the distance behind a bunch of tall buildings. The rain was pounding. The clouds were still dark and the world beyond the flat looked dead. The wind was in full force.

Dan saw everything slow down around him. Every droplet of rain suspended in mid air. He watched his best friend get pushed by the wind. Phil stumbled over the lawn chair and the wind kept pushing. The wind swept him against the balcony’s ledge. He dropped the can with the spider over the edge as he tried to catch himself against the railing. The railing, being overpowered by the wind and Phil, loosened and fell apart.

One minute, Dan saw his best friend standing outside on their balcony. The next minute, Phil and the balcony's railing were gone.  
Phil was gone.

Dan screamed at the top of his lungs. It was an earth shattering scream that tore through all other sound barriers. It was a scream that came from within, the sound of his soul falling to pieces.

“PHIILLLLLL!!!!”

Dan ran toward the door and got on his hands and knees as he crawled his way onto the balcony. The left railing where Phil fell was completely gone. The lawn chair and table were gone. All that was left was a cement floor suspended 26 floors above the earth. 

The wind kept picking up and dying down as Dan crawled closer to the edge where Phil fell. Dan did not want to look down. The idea of what he would see on the sidewalk nearly killed him inside. Dan thought of Phil on the ground disfigured and broken, bleeding and dead. He wiped the thought away quickly. It crushed his heart to even go there.

_Phil can’t be dead. No. Phil…_

Something along the edge caught Dan’s eye. _It is… what is that?_

_Is that?_

_OH GOD._

Fingers. Phil’s fingers holding on to the ledge for dear life. 

Dan crawled over to him and looked over the balcony’s end to see Phil struggling to hold on to the cement ground. His face was red and his body looked tired from holding himself up. His arms were shaking with every ounce of strength left in him to keep him from falling 26 floors to his death. 

Phil looked up at Dan and smiled. Jesus Christ he smiled. A tear was trying to escape his eye. It was like he was accepting his fate and saying goodbye to Dan with a single tear and warm smile.

_Not today. No. Not today._

“Phil, hold on! I got you!”

Dan grabbed Phil’s arms and used every ounce of strength he had to pull his best friend up. Phil clutched onto Dan’s arms as Dan tried to get a tight grip on Phil. The wind kept swinging Phil’s body away from Dan making it harder to hold on.

Dan looked past Phil’s shoulders and head to see the ground below. The sidewalk was hardly visible and cars were the size of ants. The street looked flooded from the storm and if he looked close enough, he could see their lawn chair lying on the sidewalk broken into hundreds of pieces. Everything looked light years away.

“Dan!”

Phil was still dangling off the balcony, their grip on each other loosening. Dan didn’t think he could hold on any longer. His body was hurting.  
 _No, I am not about to lose Phil._

Dan readjusted his grip and pulled Phil up as hard and fast as he could. He felt his own muscles ripping as Phil’s legs finally got hold of the balcony’s ground. Phil scrambled onto the balcony and Dan fell back and grunted in pain. 

The rain was still going at full speed, heavy droplets saturating their clothes. Dan and Phil crawled back into the house, struggling to open and close the screen door against the wind. Once it was closed, Phil fell over. His body was trembling all over from a mixture of adrenaline and terror. Dan jumped on Phil and hugged and kissed him over and over again.

“Daa.... Dann. I ha….t….a…wh…” 

“Shh…. You’re okay now Phil. Everything’s okay. Shh.. just calm down. You’re going to be okay.”

Dan stroked Phil’s shaking arms and cried like he never had before. He swore he could almost feel his soul tear away from of his body through his dry heaves and painful sobs. Phil slowly started to calm down as Dan tried to soothe him and hold him so that the shaking would stop. Dan’s panting slowly started to turn into heavy sighs. _Phil is okay. Phil is alive._

No words were exchanged as Dan picked Phil up and helped him into his bed in silence. He changed Phil out of his wet clothes and into a t-shirt and pajama pants. Dan’s muscles were screaming at him to just lie down and heal but Dan didn’t listen to them. He needed to take care of Phil.

Phil looked extremely pale once he fell back onto his bed. Dan grabbed a bucket from the hallway closet just in time for Phil to start retching violently into it. Dan saw that there was not blood, just fluids that refused to digest after their traumatic event. Dan washed his face with a wash cloth and tucked him under the covers. 

Dan looked at the clock and saw that it was 6pm. The storm was still going strong. He couldn’t imagine the amount of damage that the storm was doing to London. He already saw the balcony literally fall apart before his eyes and the wind practically blew everything away, including Phil. His Phil.

But the wind failed. Phil was laying in his bed. Alive.

There was no way Dan was leaving Phil alone tonight. They needed to talk about what just happened and possibly consider going to the hospital. Every move Dan made was painful because of the amount of strength needed to pull Phil up and away from death's grip. He couldn’t imagine how awful Phil was feeling. 

Dan walked into Phil’s room after turning out the living room lights and shutting the blinds for the screen door. They were NEVER going on that balcony again.  
Phil was looking up at the ceiling, blank faced and still pale. 

“I’m sleeping with you tonight, Phil.”

“Okay.”

“Tomorrow after the storm passes I think we should go to the hospital and get checked out. I can’t move without wanting to cry and you don’t look to great either.”

“Okay.”

Dan walked over to the bed and slid under the covers. He scooted close to Phil and hugged him again. Phil tensed for a second, then loosened his body and turned over to look at Dan. Looking at Phil made Dan burst into tears. Phil followed suit. They both held each other as tight as their muscles would allow and cried for the remainder of the night.

~***~

The next morning Dan was first to wake up. He looked over to see Phil fast asleep. His face was less pale, which made Dan sigh in relief. His muscles were still sore but it was nothing that more rest couldn’t heal. Dan stroked Phil’s hair as he remembered what had happened the night before. Phil had said that he loved Dan and proceeded to almost fall to his death only minutes later.

It was obvious that Phil was ashamed for liking Dan which was stupid in Dan’s eyes because he loved Phil as much as Phil loved him. Phil was afraid of what Dan would think and Dan was afraid of what Phil would think. It sounded silly taking a step back from the situation. Communication was an easy fix to their problem.  
If there was anything he learned yesterday it was that when it comes to loving someone, he should not just pretend his feelings do not exist. He was too afraid to take the chance to fall in love with the most amazing person ever. Rejection taunted him like an old friend. Rejection was something that Dan was quite familiar with back when he fancied classmates at school. The point is that life is about taking chances. He almost lost the one person he loved the most in the world yesterday. He was about to watch Phil die without telling him what he should of told him a long time ago. 

He should have said, “Phil, I love you. I’m sorry if this changes things between us but I had to tell you otherwise I would live my life without telling you my true feelings and that is probably more painful than dying.” He had said it to his bedroom mirror so many times before but never had the balls to walk out into Phil’s room and say it to him. He needs to tell Phil now, before the wind or something else tried to take him away again.

Dan nuzzled Phil’s forehead with his nose. Phil’s eyes slowly opened and focused in on Dan.

“Phil.”

“Dan?”

“I love you.”

“…You don’t have to say that.”

“I’m not saying it because I feel sorry, Phil. I’m saying it because I have been in love with you since I met you through Youtube. It had been my dream to meet you and when we finally did meet I almost immediately fell in love with you. You are the greatest thing that has ever happened in my life and I’m sorry I haven’t told you this before. “

“Dan,” Phil whispered. Tears began to form in his eyes.

“Phil, you almost died. I don’t know what I would have done if you had fallen.. If I had let you slip through my hands. Your last words to me would have been about the fact that you think I didn’t love you and that we can’t be together. Phil, I don’t know how I could go on if you died thinking that. I want to be with you forever.” Dan kissed Phil’s lips and tilted his forehead against his.

“I do love you, Dan. I’m sorry I haven’t told you sooner. I guess you never really know when a day may be your last, right? All I know is now that we’re here… and I want to stay here. Like this. I want to be with you forever too.” Phil wrapped his body around Dan’s and cried into his neck. 

Dan held Phil. Dan thought about the long road to recovery they were going to need. He thought about the hours of crying they will continue to share. He thought about the muscles that still needed to heal. He thought about Phil and how they would not be alone anymore. They never were alone in the first place. They always had each other. 

They were going to be okay. 

~***~ 

Weeks after the storm was over, the BBC News reported all the damage that had been done to London. Dan and Phil sat on the couch holding hands while the news caster walked down the streets of London showing images of fallen trees and flooded neighborhoods. It was not as horrible as Dan had expected it to be. Phil was oblivious to the fact that it had even stormed that day until he had walked outside and almost flew off the balcony. The reporter said that most of the damage could be seen on the high levels of buildings in London. Apparently their balcony was not the only one that had practically blown away. Of course Phil was the only idiot to walk out onto it in the middle of a hurricane though. 

Dan had thought about reporting what had happened to him and Phil to a news station or even the police, but thought better of it. Phil was still having nightmares over the experience and Dan still saw Phil dangling over the edge of balcony every time he closed his eyes. He thought it would be best if they just kept that experience to themselves.

Their relationship after Phil’s near death experience had changed. They were in love. Phil kissed Dan at random times throughout the day and Dan cuddled Phil in his bed the entire night. After what had happened, they both became a bit inseparable for a while. Dan had taken Phil to the hospital the day after the storm and stayed by his side at all times even weeks after. Phil didn’t mind. He needed Dan to be there to remind him that he was alive. 

When the news switched over to sports, Dan shut the tv off and pushed Phil down on their couch. He straddled Phil’s waist and looked down at his boyfriend. 

“I think I have a new nickname for you.”

Phil looked up at Dan and laughed, “Do I want to know?”

“Reichenbach Phil.”

“Dan! That is not funny! I am not Sherlock!” Phil laughed at first, but then pouted to show that he was not pleased.

Dan smiled down at him. “Don’t give me that face. You know, my mom said when people pout for too long their faces become stuck like that. Do you want your face to be stuck like that?”

“Yes, because every time I make this face you give me everything I want,” Phil replied. 

Dan rolled his eyes and laced Phil’s hands with his, “Oh Phil, what am I going to do with you?”

“You are going to verse me in a game of Mario Cart!!!!!”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I will find that fuzzy black spider and put it under your pillow!” Phil laughed as he pulled Dan down for a kiss.

“PHILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!”

The End

~***~

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it! :)
> 
> Please leave a comment/kudos if you want to hear more from me!!


End file.
